CIP Update


September 30, 2005

This newsletter is for cities, counties and communities involved in public-private partnerships for joint emergency preparedness, planning and prevention. 

Michigan State University produces the newsletter through the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP)-Community Facilitation Program under a grant awarded by the Office for Domestic Preparedness, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  This newsletter provides ideas, suggestions, best practices and lessons learned to establish critical incident protocols using public-private partnerships.

Please go to www.cip.msu.edu for more information about the program.

 

Participating Communities

Allentown, PA / Annapolis, MD / Bethlehem, PA / Brooklyn, OH / Carroll County, MD / Casa Grande, AZ / Clark County, NV / Evansville, IN / Hoover, AL / Marquette County, MI / Milwaukee, WI / Monroe County, MI / Northampton County, PA / Oakland County, MI / Redmond, WA / Racine, WI / Richmond Area, VA / Rockville, MD / Sandy City, UT

We are currently working with 19 communities and will work with another 26 cities, counties or communities over the next couple of years.  Of the 26 available CIP Programs, we are in contact with 10 communities.  Is there a location in the nation that you think may be interested in building a public-private partnership for joint emergency preparedness?  Please let us know.


WMD Training and Developing an Intelligence Capacity Training

Michigan State University offers several ODP funded training courses, in addition to the CIP Program.  

One program is the "Developing an Intelligence Capacity" which is being offered in 22 locations around the nation.  This two-day training provides tools to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to develop their intelligence capability.  The training includes identifying terrorist targets, assessing threats, target hardening, monitoring individuals, apprehension, and managing fear associated with terrorist threats and attacks.  For more information on this program, please go to http://intellprogram.msu.edu

Last week, I was fortunate to sit in on MSU's "Leading from the Front: WMD Awareness for the Law Enforcement Executive" program offered in Scottsdale, AZ.  The Salt River Police Department sponsored the program and was an excellent host.  Federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement professionals, along with other criminal justice practitioners attended this two-day training.  The program contains the latest information on WMD, along with information on homeland security, planning, strategies, response and finishes with a tabletop exercise.  To learn about this highly rated training opportunity, please go to http://www.cj.msu.edu/%7Eoutreach/wmd/index.html
 

A New Partner - Tribal Agencies, Businesses and Non-Profits

As the CIP program expands around the nation we continue to solicit certain entities in many communities.  Typically, when we first start talking with a prospective community we look for a strong commitment from a variety of the public sector agencies, along with many of the high profile businesses.  Then we begin looking at schools, hospitals, colleges, utilities, security organizations, Citizen Corp groups, emergency preparedness groups and "tribal" organizations, if located in the community.

Being able to spend a couple of days with the Salt River Police Department in Scottsdale, AZ last week was a reminder of the excellence, professionalism, and commitment that a tribal agency can bring to a partnership.  Located in the Metropolitan Phoenix area, they serve over 100,000 people.  Their officers have tribal, federal, state and local authority.  This law enforcement agency has earned community, state and national recognition, and is well known throughout Arizona and the southwest. 
 

CIP Community Happenings

Racine, WI - Please welcome the city of Racine and Racine County to the partnership program!  Many of the governmental leaders were in attendance, along with a strong showing from the SC Johnson Corporation, All Saints Healthcare, American Red Cross, Modine Manufacturing Company, Volunteer Center of Racine, and visitors from College of Lake County, Illinois.

Bethlehem, PA - On Sept 30th the staff will be facilitating an Orientation/Planning Session for the city of Bethlehem.  What makes this unique is that the communities on either side of Bethlehem are CIP communities; Allentown and Northampton County.  Participants from all three communities are discussing working together in the future on region-wide projects.  The strength of partnerships is built by cascading it throughout a region.


Public-Private Partnership Model

Here are a couple of public-private partnerships organizations in California that could provide you with ideas, tasks and concepts.  The “Business Recovery Manager’s Association” (BRMA) at www.brma.com is devoted to the advancement of the theory and practice of business recovery, disaster recovery, contingency and continuity planning, and emergency response management.  BRMA members work in both the private and public sectors.  Members are kept informed about the latest trends and technologies, along with receiving educational and professional development opportunities.  BRMA is a forum in which to share experiences, resolve common problems, and address common needs.  It has an extensive library, speaker’s bureau and brings in diversified experts to share information with the members.  Their website is located at http://preparednesspartners.org

The city of Milpitas, CA, along with the Chamber of Commerce have developed and funded the “Business Partners for Emergency Preparedness” (BPEP) group.  BPEP’s mission is to increase awareness about the need to prepare for an emergency before it happens; provide the business community with well tested guidance on preparing for a major emergency, and organize community businesses into a self-sufficient team for responding to, and recovering from, any emergency (BPEP, 2005).  Their core curriculum covers Incident Command System for Businesses, Assessing your Emergency Response Plan, Disaster First Aid, Terrorists Threats and Other Acts of Violence, Business Continuity and more.  Their website is at http://preparednesspartners.org


Best Practices & Lessons Learned

The CIP staff has developed a list of best practices and lessons learned that are taken from the communities we work with, as well as other sources.    The attached document contains the best practices/lessons learned.  If you have an example that is not mentioned – please share it with us!  The more that we share with you, and in turn, each community shares with other CIP groups, the more effective the Protocol Partnership Groups.

 
Next Steps by CIP Communities

When participants work through the CIP Program, one task is developing a list of “next steps”, which is at the end of the first workshop.  During the Orientation/Planning Session, participants work on enhancing the public-private partnership, speak on joint emergency response issues, discuss the Incident Command System, and work through a risk assessment tool.  These tasks are designed so that at the end of the day the participants are ready to work together on deciding and identifying what “next steps” the group wants to do?  Recently, one of the new communities came up with the following tasks:

1.      First and foremost - the group clearly stated that they should meet again to jointly work on how the partnership could benefit everyone

2.      To view the county emergency management plan, especially for businesses to see how it corresponds with their strategic planning

3.      There should be information released to the media about the Protocol Partnership Group

4.      It was suggested that the group or a smaller group of key people meet within 4 to 6 weeks to put together an agenda, etc.

5.      Bring in the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club and other key organizations that would have a vested interest in the program

6.      Identify training and seminars from public and private sectors related to joint emergency preparedness

7.      Develop a list or database of "resources" for human-caused and natural disasters (critical incidents) that would be readily available to participants

8.      When mailing information about the program to businesses, be sure to include CEO's

9.      Organize a meeting with CEO's regarding the benefits of the program to their organizations

10.  Form subcommittees that would be charged with specific tasks and report back to the general membership

11.  Attendees were strongly encouraged to review their own emergency response plans

12.  Public sector organizations are encouraged to incorporate the private sector into their annual disaster exercises

13.  Develop a centralized database of all the coordinators in the county who manage volunteer groups

14.  Develop a centralized database of all the security managers in the county


Recent Update from the 9/11 Commission on Private Sector Preparedness

On Sept 14, 2005, an update was released to the public on the status of implementing the recommendations from the 9/11 Commission.  The report separates 14 recommendations into Emergency Preparedness and Response, Transportation Security and Border Security.  One of the many areas that we address is noted in the report as “private sector preparedness”.  The 9/11 Commission report states, “we endorse the American National Standards Institutes’ recommended standard for private preparedness....” (9/11 Public Discourse Project, 2005, p. 4). 

This refers to the “NFPA1600 – Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs” publication, which can be downloaded from the “CIP Information Exchange” members-only website.

This document is an excellent resource for not only the private sector to use as a guide to work from, but also for the public sector to share it with businesses and non-profit organizations.

 
Recent Postings to CIP Information Exchange Website

To enter the "CIP Information Exchange" website, please go to https://angel.msu.edu and enter your user/password ID (or use msu.msu@angel in the User/NetID and "partnership" as the password to log in).  Click on CIP and it will take you to the main menu.

Located in the folder "Bulletin Board - Information for all Communities" are just a few of the following postings:

 

“Hospitals are on Alert for Possible Terror Threats”

“The Public-Private Interface: What’s Not in Place and What to do About It”

“Crisis Management for Business Continuity”

“An On-line Test of your Skills as an Emergency Manager Responding to a Volcano Eruption”

There are numerous other resources located on the website.  To locate a specific topic, use the "search" function, which can be found on the main menu page on the right-hand side in the green task bar.

 
Starting a CIP Program

Feel free to make a referral to the MSU staff about possibly starting a CIP Program elsewhere in the United States.  We can use your assistance! 


Past Newsletters

If you are interested in viewing past CIP Update newsletters, please go to www.cip.msu.edu and select “Newsletters” from the main menu.   


Closing

If you have any topics and/or ideas for a future CIP Update newsletter, please contact Brit Weber at weberbr@msu.edu or (517) 355-2227 or other MSU staff members.  About every three weeks you will receive this newsletter via email.  If you no longer want to be on this list, please reply to this email.


Sources

9/11 Public Discourse Project.  (2005, Sept. 14)  Report of the Status of 9/11 Commission Recommendations.  Retrieved from www.9-11pdp.org on September 27, 2005.

Business Partners in Emergency Preparedness.  (2005).  About PEP.  Retrieved from http://preparednesspartners.org/about.asp on September 27, 2005.

 

Brit Weber

School of Criminal Justice

Michigan State University

1407 S. Harrison Rd., 335 Nisbet Bldg.

East Lansing, MI 48823

Work:  (517)  355-2227   Cell:  (517) 206-1640

weberbr@msu.edu

Visit our website:  http://www.cip.msu.edu